Wednesday, April 28, 2010

But seriously, I feel like this month has gone super fast. Wasn't it just March? Now it's almost May! And my hopes and dreams of a humongous pile of felt food for my ninth craft till Christmas hasn't been completely realized. Sadly, my once-hoped-for humongous mountain has become a more realistic barely-there hill. While I've concentrated on felt foods this month, I will probably keep dabbling in them here and there in the coming months till Christmas. I want to be able to give my girls an assortment of goodies.

If you've been reading along, you have seen my "frozen" felt treats and you have heard the inside scoop on my struggle with making bread . . . the felt kind. Tonight, I want to unveil the result of this struggle . . . ta da . . . delicious, nutritious 100% whole wheat bread.

Now, there are a plethora (gosh, I love using that word) of tutorials out there on making bread of the felt kind. As I mentioned when I started this month's foray into felt foods, I wanted to find my own way and only rely on these fabulous tutorials if absolutely necessary. That's how I do things . . . I rarely go by a recipe, I hardly ever read the directions when putting together a new toy, and my sewing/crafting journey has been decidedly similar.

So, here's my recipe for felt bread:

1) Take out a piece of bread (yes, a real piece of bread) and trace it onto your felt or a piece of paper for a pattern. Then tweak it a little bit as you cut it out if you want to exaggerate the bread shape. I wanted a little bit of an indent on the top of the loaf, so I added that in the cutting process. Obviously, you need two of these shapes for every piece of bread. (Thank you Captain Obvious!)

2) Measure around the outside edges of the felt bread shape and cut a 1/2 inch strip from the felt you've chosen for the crust.

3) Now, begin to hand sew one bread-shaped piece to one edge of the crust strip using embroidery thread to match the crust. (I used a blanket stitch because it seems to really seal up the edges.) Sew the crust strip all the way around the bread piece. Make sure you leave a tale of the felt strip at the beginning and the end because you will need to sew the two together. When the end of the long strip meets up with the beginning, fold ends up into body of the bread and sew these two ends together.

4) Cut four or five layers of quilt batting in the same shape as the bread pieces. (The number of batting layers you use depends on how puffy you want the bread. Batting is super easy to cut in multiple layers, so just layer up your batting and cutaway.) Place into crust and bread piece.

5) Take second bread piece and place it on top of batting. Sew this piece to the crust sandwiching the batting in between.

I started out thinking I was going to make enough bread to fill a bread bag. I figured out that was a lofty goal after it took me three hours just to do the first piece of bread. Thankfully, I got into a bread-making rhythm, and it ended up taking less and less time with each piece. However, I also have a short attention span, so after six pieces of bread, I transitioned my bag of bread to a loaf pan of bread with about a third of the loaf yet to be cut.

Making a "loaf" of bread is pretty similar to making a piece.

1) Cut two bread-shaped pieces.

2) Cut a crust strip about three or four inches in width to fit around the perimeter of the bread pieces.

3) Sew bread piece to crust strip using same directions above.

4) Cut eight bread shapes out of quilt batting. Insert first four pushing them all the way into the bread. Fill the rest of the inside up with felt scraps or other soft scraps. Lay the final four bread-shaped batting pieces on the top of filling.

5) Sew second bread piece over top of filling to crust strip.

Enjoy your delicious loaf of bread. You could make the ends of the bread by using the same felt you used for the crust as one bread piece. However, my girls protest wildly when I make them eat the ends of the bread, so I decided to spare them the ends for playtime.

OK, so I just made my first slice of bread last night. Yours looks great! I had issues with stretching or something...the bread is kind of twisted. It is still super cute, but I'm thinking if I try to make more that they will look funny together. Did you have this issue ever?

blogging manners

I try to teach my kids good manners. I'm not sure how successful I've been though. But when I hear them say "please" or "thank you", I know my persistence is paying off. I try to use good manners on my blog too . . . giving credit where credit is due by linking back to projects or ideas from other crafty bloggers. I ask you to do the same. If, in some rare instance, you are inspired enough to blog about something I tried or use an idea you find here, please link back to me (if it's my idea) or the original blogger. Feel free to use my original ideas and tutorials for personal use only (gifts or self) not for profit!